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TheLongWayHome
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Posts: 1016
Location: San Luis Piojosi
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 Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:15 pm Post subject: |
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| MELEE wrote: |
| GringaMexicana wrote: |
| ... wake up early to prender el boiler before you take a shower. |
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pero solo si te vas a meter a ba�ar... |
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MO39
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1970
Location: El ombligo de la Rep�blica Mexicana
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| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:54 pm Post subject: |
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| MELEE wrote: |
| GringaMexicana wrote: |
| ... wake up early to prender el boiler before you take a shower. |
OK, now that is just crazy!
But for the most part I think most of us can relate.
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It's not so much the thrill of actually striking a match and holding it inside the boiler tank as you push the red button and hope the blue flame appears (because you're not sure if there's any gas left in the tank on the roof) as much as it is just one of the many concrete details that makes up your life in this place. |
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Phil_K
Joined: 25 Jan 2007
Posts: 2041
Location: A World of my Own
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| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| It's not so much the thrill of actually striking a match and holding it inside the boiler tank as you push the red button and hope the blue flame appears |
You should get one of those long lighter thingies you can buy in the supermarket - much safer! |
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MO39
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1970
Location: El ombligo de la Rep�blica Mexicana
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| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Phil_K wrote: |
| Quote: |
| It's not so much the thrill of actually striking a match and holding it inside the boiler tank as you push the red button and hope the blue flame appears |
You should get one of those long lighter thingies you can buy in the supermarket - much safer! |
Thanks for the advice. Actually it's the thrill of not knowing if the whole thing (and I) will go up in a big puff of gas and flame that wakes me up in the morning! |
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TheLongWayHome
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Posts: 1016
Location: San Luis Piojosi
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| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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Those boiler gas set-ups need checking when you move into a place in Mexico, especially an apartment. Some of them haven't been checked in years, even decades and are a potential death-trap.
We had a stove catch fire on us once - great fire service in SLP by the way. We also had a tank that was leaking on the roof. We couldn't believe that we needed to spend $200 to $300 pesos a month on gas until we found the leak!! |
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MO39
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1970
Location: El ombligo de la Rep�blica Mexicana
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| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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| TheLongWayHome wrote: |
Those boiler gas set-ups need checking when you move into a place in Mexico, especially an apartment. Some of them haven't been checked in years, even decades and are a potential death-trap.
We had a stove catch fire on us once - great fire service in SLP by the way. We also had a tank that was leaking on the roof. We couldn't believe that we needed to spend $200 to $300 pesos a month on gas until we found the leak!! |
I finally persuaded my landlord to have my boiler checked because there was always a slight odor of gas hovering about it. After the plumber checked it out, my bill for bottled gas fell from 270 pesos a month to just 200! In the D.F. a small tank of gas is now 192 pesos, to which I add a tip for the extremely strong guys who shlep the tanks from the street to the roof up four flights of of a narrow, winding staircase. |
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Mrs L
Joined: 20 Mar 2008
Posts: 72
Location: Rainy England
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:00 am Post subject: |
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| TheLongWayHome wrote: |
In other words, teaching English in your home country is by and large a crap job - cleaners make more in London, and not even the legal ones! |
I agree with TLWH, teaching English in the UK still isn't a career, there's a big difference between what school teachers and ESOL teachers earn here (and I personally have no desire to get into the UK school system). Many of my American and Candian friends continued to teach when they got home but here we prefer to translate everything than teach English to our immigrants. There's still the opinion here that people only teach ESL because they're not 'good enough' to be a 'real' teacher  , it drives me crazy!!! |
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jfurgers
Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 442
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Mrs L wrote: |
There's still the opinion here that people only teach ESL because they're not 'good enough' to be a 'real' teacher , it drives me crazy!!! |
I hear that from people in the States sometimes. It's people who have NEVER taught anything who say such things. I tell those people, feel free to come by and teach one of my classes. They never do. It's just like the people who know so much about Mexico even though they've NEVER been there. |
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jfurgers
Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 442
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:29 pm Post subject: |
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ESL Instructors for the most part, aren't considered to be real teachers. At least not by people who have a Ph.D. All of the teachers at the college where I teach, are contract only.We get no benefits like health insurance or vacation time.
It's usually only part time also. The pay is OK ($24.00 PER HOUR) but again, no benefits. I've heard some people at SMU say that ESL teachers are those people who can't make it here in the States so they have to go to another, inferior country to live and work. It never enters their minds that maybe not everyone WANTS to live a stress filled life doing the same boring office job all of the time. It has always amazed me how people can make such comments. |
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MO39
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1970
Location: El ombligo de la Rep�blica Mexicana
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:17 pm Post subject: |
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| In the US, if you want to teach ESL to adults, the best place to do that is at community colleges, where you are treated like all the other instructors. The one I worked at for years in Philadelphia had a very good union, so even the part-time instructors received some benefits and pretty good pay. Of course, it was the full-timers who really did well! For some reason, universities in the States treat ESL more as a money-making part of the institution instead of an academic department. The instructors are not regular faculty, get so-so pay and usually no benefits. |
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jfurgers
Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 442
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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| MO39 wrote: |
| In the US, if you want to teach ESL to adults, the best place to do that is at community colleges, where you are treated like all the other instructors. For some reason, universities in the States treat ESL more as a money-making part of the institution instead of an academic department. The instructors are not regular faculty, get so-so pay and usually no benefits. |
I agree. I've been teaching at a community college and the pay is good but you also have to get enough classes each semester in order to make any real money. I did very well this semester even though I have no benefits.
SMU (where I used to work) has an ESL program, and like you said, the instructors aren't regular faculty and the pay for them is little compared to regular professors. Nowadays a lot of the profs who teach many mainstream courses are adjunct (part-time) like the ESL instructors.
Universities like to give their money to the people at the top who only delegate things while the teachers and other admin people get nothing. |
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jfurgers
Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 442
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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| MO39 wrote: |
| In the US, if you want to teach ESL to adults, the best place to do that is at community colleges, where you are treated like all the other instructors. The one I worked at |
Was there a difference in the students you taught in the States compared to the ones you teach in Mexico? Some of mine, for example, HAVE to learn English because they're living and working in the States but the ones in DF for example wouldn't approach EFL with ths same sense of urgency, would they??
Just wondering. |
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MO39
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1970
Location: El ombligo de la Rep�blica Mexicana
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:19 pm Post subject: |
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| jfurgers wrote: |
| MO39 wrote: |
| In the US, if you want to teach ESL to adults, the best place to do that is at community colleges, where you are treated like all the other instructors. The one I worked at |
Was there a difference in the students you taught in the States compared to the ones you teach in Mexico? Some of mine, for example, HAVE to learn English because they're living and working in the States but the ones in DF for example wouldn't approach EFL with ths same sense of urgency, would they??
Just wondering. |
The students I taught at Community College of Philadelphia were all immigrants and thus had an urgent need to learn/improve their English. The older ones were usually more diligent with their studies but also often led difficult lives that sometimes got in the way. The younger ones, especially those who had studied in American high schools but still needed ESL classes, had become Americanized, which meant that they often behaved like typical American teenagers and thus could be disrespectful to their teachers and were generally uninterested in working to improve their English.
I am lucky with the few private students I have now in Mexico City. They're all mature adults who are studying with me because they need English for their jobs, so their motivation is high. Also, the fact that they're paying for the classes out of their own pockets,(and I don't charge bargain basement rates) is an added incentive for them to take the whole thing seriously. |
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jfurgers
Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 442
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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Most of the young ones I've had are OK. They skip a lot. The older ones are more serious like yours. I'm getting excited to be heading out of the States. Everything is beginning to cost too much here.  |
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sweeney66
Joined: 26 Mar 2008
Posts: 147
Location: "home"
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:21 pm Post subject: your inner mexican |
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| Yesterday my inner Mexican and I got to work at 9am, and it was sooo cold that the tamale lady had already sold out and gone home. We didn't feel right all day. I can no longer imagine a different breakfast. |
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